Mjx

Echoing pastrygirl, what's being boring (just to establish a baseline for any suggestions)?

You have it partly right. As I said, I'm American, virtually my entire family still lives in the US, so I'm not loathe to visit (I can't really call myself a visitor, either), but I don't like dining out in the US. I don't like dining out in the US, because it is one of the few situations where I actually feel like an 'ugly American' on whose whim someone's hourly wage hangs (and now understand why my grandafather made a practice of tipping before the meal). When I waited tables in the US, I probably experienced the most miserable version of that job. Plus, until then, I had no idea that there were real jobs that paid less then minimum wage. When I dine out, I know that I'm being served by people who are being paid less than minimum wage, and they're counting on tips to make a decent living. I know that their being tipped enough to make a living rests solely on the decisions of the diners, and since my own experience of this job was not great, I feel bad for the times they may have been/may be stiffed. Because of what I know, I virtually always tip 20%, and if I'm dining with people who are not accustomed to tipping, I do whatever possible to ensure that they tip; if I have doubts about my having succeeded, I just slip around and tip the waiter myself, and explain that I'm not sure the party I'm with quite gets the tipping idea. When I dine at a restaurant where waiters rely on tips, I can't escape the feeling that I'm somehow endorsing and supporting this system (this is the part that makes me uncomfortable to the extent of no longer being able to enjoy dining out in the US). Not tipping only hurts wait-staff, and has zero impact on changing the system, and has never been something I've even considered. I don't think I ever said 'Why don't the servers just rise up and demand better'; I admit to not having looked back at everything I've written, but know that's not an effective option.

What?! That wasn't at all what I was trying to say at all! How could that be the takeaway?! How is this condescending?! Your reading of this strikes me as a the most wilful and dishonest misinterpretation you were able to frame. I was trying to explain that because I was taught specifically to not put fingers in people's eyes, the fact that someone might do so was so impossible to to me it, could not compute. I give an example of something incompehensible causing brain freeze, and you read it as a metaphor for something about international relations?! It's as though the hyphenated term leaped out at you, and you saw nothing else, read no further, read nothing else that I've written. It was the only example that came to mind. I feel like I'm supposed to apologize for the fact that it did not occur in an elegant, urban setting. Fine: I apologize. I'm sorry, because I had no intention of offending you or anybody else. I'm sorry it came off the way it did. But I don't understand how it happened (even if you wanted it to be a metaphor, the farm is in the EU, and the American in this incident got the dirty finger in the eye so..?). All I was saying was that the two frames of reference regarding wages are different enough on this point that they don't make sense to each other, they don't compute. I know the system doesn't work, and that tipping is crucial. I know this because I'm American and I worked at a restaurant for tips, I found it appalling. Why are you not getting that I understand this perfectly well? I spent a winter working at a restaurant, a winter with no electricity, and living on instant mash made with hot water from the tap. It was terrifying. Why are you not getting that, because I know perfectly well what the underpinnings of the system are, I routinely tip 20% unless the server stabs me, or something?! That I think paying wait-staff a living wage would be a great idea? That I spend a fair amount of time trying to convince people from the EU to tip, regardless of whether they approve? I've already said that the system feels exploitive, took some heat for that, in fact. Did you decide that by 'exploitive' I meant 'exploitive of the people tipping'..? Is that it? Because that's not what I mean: I mean 'exploitive of people being tipped', and I didn't specify, because to me, it seems self-evident. In the EU, I am frustrated by my inability to explain the fact that the system of paying sub-minimum wages really exists, and is apparently currently too monolithic to change. I tried to explain the reason I think I have been unable to successfully explain this. But I have no trouble understanding it at all.

It's a fair question, and all I can come up with is that the neccesity of tipping is so far removed from the situation in the EU and UK that it is literally not comprehensible. It isn't about morality. I don't even know how to explain this, but the best way I can think of trying to, is describing something compltely unrelated: I was visiting a friend on a farm, and we'd spent the mroning doing farm-related things that involved dirt, butchering some chickens, dung shovelling, and finally, splitting wood. During the last activity, the splitter spat out a piece of bark that settled not-very-coveniently in my eye. I took off my glasses, cupped my hand over my eye, being careful to not let it actually touch my eye, and did some intensive and ineffective blinking. My friend came over, and asked to take a look. I let her take a look. Thenshe reached for my face, put her finger in my eye, and tried to remove the bark. I was literally so unable to process the idea that someone would put a dirt/dung/chicken-bodily-fluid-covered finger into a living eye that my brain rejected the possiblity, and failed to function. I didn't even close my eyes. I simply could not grasp that such a thing could be. Faced with the apparently impossible, my capacity to reason broke down utterly. This can't be happening, it isn't happening. I'm still not able to grasp how this happened, simpy because it makes aboslutely no sense to me The frames of reference on either side of the Atlantic are so different, comprehension is apparently impossble. I know that the wage situation is what it is, and that not tipping only hurts waitstaff and fails utterly as a statement, but the last part especially I've found impossible to communicate.

No no, that's fine, was just a bit concerned that I wasn't clear about the issue not being about the tracts! So you too had to deal with parents who apparently handed their children over to be raised by wolves?! I thought that was some sort of recent phenomenon that was the result of the 'never crush your children by saying NO' school of child-rearing

But I had no problem with the religious tracts as such, my problem was that they were usually left instead of a financial tip, and neither my landlord nor supermarkets accepted those as currency. I just couldn't see why someone who spent eleven bucks on dinner couldn't manage even a dollar as a tip. When I first went off to university, the town where I ended up was tiny, and the restaurant was pretty much the only place I was considered old enough to work. So, absolutely, no force was involved in my getting a job there, but my options at the beginning were few; as soon as more reliable ones showed up, I went after them. I think – based on the many discussions I've had about this with people from various EU countries – that what is difficult to wrap one's head around is the fact that wait-staff nationwide hasn't done anything to change the status quo. This might because of the ease with which you can be replaced, although I'm not at all certain; still, for every place where waiters make great tips, there's some little diner where the tips are meagre, or even often absent.

The important point I made was that as things stand now in the US, people should tip waitstaff, since not tipping won't have any effect on changing tipping culture, and the one who is harmed is the person who took care of them. Mentioning having received religious material in lieu of a monetary tip on a number of occasions is not, and certainly was not intended as a swipe at any religion.

'Michaela is uncomfortable with cultural differences between countries'...? I was born in NYC, and spent a good chunk of my life there, so US culture is not what I can call 'another culture'. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. My guess is that you've never waited tables in the US. I have. Social pressure to tip properly? Please. I've had people leave me religious tracts as tips. I'm sure there are places where waiting tables is a great job, but in many others, it sucks, and the place I worked sure did. The iffiness of tipping on top of this made it remarkably awful. And it is my experience of waiting tables, of working in this environment, not 'provincial absolutism', which underpins my feelings that the basic tipping construct can easily become exploitive. My main points were not the ones you identified as such, but that A) it is difficult for the two sides of this debate to understand one another, and B) that regardless of whether or not you believe tipping culture to be acceptable, you should tip your server in the US (i.e. the things I made a point of emphasizing at the beginning and end of my post). You don't like 'gambling'? Fair enough, let's call it 'a gamble'. And it is: there's often no guarantee that you'll earn a cent on any given night. Again, I'm basing this conclusion on having actually worked for tips. In the first place, a tip is 'something monetary' (except when it's a religious tract, or a slightly battered 'Jesus Saves' sticker). In the second place, if norms were enough ensure consistently adequate tipping, this entire topic wouldn't even be taking place, since virtually all tips would be at least acceptable, and there wouldn't really be anything to debate. I can't see that my admitted discomfort with the tipping paradigm is any sort of character indictment; I think everyone should be paid a living wage, which hardly seems culturally insensitive or 'seeing others as less than'.

The two separate sides of this debate are never going to be able to see the other's point of view. I've been on both sides: I've waited tables in the US (as a US citizen), and found myself discussing/arguing the amount of a tip/topping culture with various Europeans (as a US and Italian citizen, like some sort of nano-UN). On the one hand, if you've eaten out at a US restaurant where the tip is not included, and wait-staff has been at least friendly and made a real effort, a 20% tip is the fair way to go. If they've been rude/neglected you, it can come down to 15% or less, depending on how atrocious they were (this is pretty rare, in my experience). If the food was lousy, or the waiter, despite his/her best intentions was not exactly competent/coordinated, I would not tip less, unless their incompetence resulted in actual damage (they didn't prepare the food, and dammit, they tried). On the other hand, I almost never eat out at US restaurants anymore. Being waited on by people who are being paid a ridiculously tiny sum makes me horrendously uncomfortable, even though I know I'll be tipping 20% unless the waiter is unambigously rude/ignores me entirely/or assaults me. Working for tips is a form of gambling, like any other activity that relies on the kindness of strangers. I also know someone is going to disagree violently about with this conclusion, but please consider this: any activity that relies on the goodwill of others is a form of gambling (I'm not saying this is fair, I'm saying this is the case). If you're a gambler, it's fine, you recognize and accept the risks. If you can't accept the risks, you're not a gambler, and another job is a far better bet. There's nothing wrong with not being a gambler; I'm not one, and in fact soon requested the lower-prestige but more predictable posisition of bus-kid/dishwasher. I'm uncomfortable with the whole tipping paradigm, and being involved in it makes me feel (please bear with me, I did say 'feel', I realize it's subjective) like I'm supporting something incredibly exploitive, so I can definitely see why those coming from cultures where wait staff is paid a standard wage, and the entire cost of dining out is evident up-front are troubled by a tipping culture. In the US, you look at the menu, and realize that with tax (not inlcuded in the list prices in the US) and tip, the meal may cost 33% more than the menu price. That feels dishonest, tricky, if you're accustomed to the menu price being a clear guideline to what you're going to pay: it's not the cost, as such, but the awareness of unknown quantities appearing at the end of the meal that is the problem. If legislation banning 'waiter's wages' was passed, and restaurants threfore added 20% to their prices across the board, I cannot imagine that people would eat out less; any sane restaurant management would point out 'Hey! No tip! What you see is what you get!' Even the tax argument, having to pay taxes on the greater income owing to the 20% higher prices does not hold up: In the EU, where income taxes tend to run far higher (in some countries, starting at around 26% on the equivalent of roughly USD18,000.00), restaurants manage to stay in business. Besides, the increased annual profits on which they'd be paying taxes would be modified by their paying wait staff at least minimum wage. And I don't find that paying a regular wage affects wait staff service: I've dined out in many countries where you don't tip, and haven't found service quality any different than it is in the US. Restaurants with lousy service aren't patronized, and have trouble staying in business. Bottom line: Until US wait staff is paid standard wages, they deserve to be properly tipped. If you're from a country that looks askance on tipping culture, just consider it in light of something that reflects the local economy (maybe a bit like the barrage of offers from sex workers in bars in Kiev or Bankgok, even if your wife or girlfriend is with you, in the sense that it's just the way things are, now), something a bit uncomfortable that you talk about, even when you get home. Under-tipping won't be what changes things (the vast majority of diners in most US restaurants are not from outside the US), it just creates bad feeling, and guarantees that your waiter was underpaid for the hour they took care of you.

Nina, the castagnaccio was not bad, but I think that something was missing from the recipe that I used from here http://thriftytuscany.com/chestnut-cake-castagnaccio-recipe. The texture was extremely crumbly and almost falling apart whenever you tried to pick it up. The colour was a light golden brown with small cracks on the surface. The flavour was quite subtle and went well with the prosciutto, pecorino and home made basil and cashew pesto. I would love suggestions on better recipes to try. Simon The appearance sounds correct (the small cracks all over the surface). Castagnaccio holds together quite well, the consistency can even be a little rubbery when it's cold, so you might be right about the toasting being responsible (although you mention 'heaps of fresh rosemary', which may have provided more breaking points for it ). I grew up with a lot of different takes on castagnaccio, and like a simple one best, so I've been using this recipe (I'm not wild about pine nuts, and don't like the consistency of raisins in this when it's cold): 500 g/17.6 oz sifted chestnut flour650 g/22 oz. water20 ml/4 tsp olive oilRoughly a tablespoon's worth of very small rosemary leaves (I've also used fresh rosemary/lavender blossom)Pinch of salt Preheat oven to 180°C/350°FAdd a little water to the chestunt flour, and mix until you have a smooth paste with no dry lumps.Add the oil, rosemary, and salt.Slowly add the rest of the water, mixing well as you do so; I go for a thick, soupy consistency (you might not need to add all the water).If you're using raisins, add them now.Let it sit for half an hour; it will thicken a bit.Pour onto a greased baking sheet/pan that will let the mixture spread to about 1 cm/0.5" layer.If you're using pine (or other) nuts, scatter them over the batter.Bake for half an hour, until the top is covered in fine cracks.The amounts of inclusions (e.g. rosemary, raisins, nuts) aren't at all critical, so long as they aren't so large that the castgnaccio is broken up by them to the extent of falling apart. ETA: Despite the recipe's instructions, I don't start preheating the oven until after I've finished mixing the batter and it's been sitting for about a quarter of an hour, at least, since the ovens I've used have never taken more than 15 minutes to reach the required temperature.

I've found that baking on/in darker surfaces gives better browning (you might not want that with cake pans).

I've heard that too, and I'm pretty sure that's correct, but these have no fibreglass in them. ETA, I took a closer look, and they're not silicone, either, but Teflon-coated. I'm not enthusiastic about Teflon, but since these aren't exposed to temperatures at which the stuff degrades, and using them doesn't involve scraping (the way it does in a pan), I'm not enormously concerned about it.

I am feeling deeply envious. Those are gorgeous (I haven't been able to get my hands on decent chestnuts in ages), and those dishes sound like they're going to be delicious, so I'm hoping you'll follow up with images/descriptions.

Nope. Already tried that one

Nope. already tried that one

I had to leave pretty much all my cooking and baking things behind when I last moved, and now only have two kind-of-cheapo 'non-stick' springform pans for cakes, and a lidless tinned Pullman pan, for bread (I also use the oval Le Creuset for large loaves of bread). My preference is for tinned steel, probably because it's what I used growing up, and what I'm used to using (I have it on good authority that for pies, clear glass is the way to go, however). I got hold of some silicone baking sheets that have a much finer weave then the Matfers (a bit like the ones made by Regency), and cut those into rounds that I put in the bottoms the springforms, when I bake cakes (I butter the sides and dust with flour or cacao; these pans are non-stick in name only). These do an excellent job of keeping the cake from sticking, and I've been reusing them for about half a dozen years; they're still good. The pans are not shedding their coatings, either, since they're protected. For the loaf pan, I fold up a piece of silicon baking paper into a shape that fits right inside the pan, and am usually able to reuse that a couple dozen times before I need to replace it, but I'm planning on switching with a similar solution to the one I use for the springforms (I like having solutions that don't involve the possibility of suddenly running out of the key material).

Is an acronym an option [e.g. ". . . muffins and cupcakes ('MCCs' in this discussion). . ." ]? This sounds like a B to B sort of thing, and unless it's for marketing purposes, the term doesn't have to be especially cute/attractive, just compact and comprehensible. Hand-cake?

'Mini-cake' is already well-established for scaled-down cakes that are baked in everything but a muffin tin ( a google image search yields masses of hits – https://www.google.dk/search?q=%22mini+cake%22&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=m6xlUZKXBNHWsgbtgIGgBA&biw=1362&bih=640&sei=oqxlUZDLJMXatAb4uYDYDw – and virtually none look like cupcakes/muffins).

Keep an eye out for Martin's reply, since I'm certain there is a better way of doing this, but I've grown ginger as a way of salvaging pieces that began to sprout: just stuck them in a container of standard potting mix, and watered them regularly. They grew nicely (at one stage showing those shoots you describe) with no special attention, even through a dark, Scandinavian winter. Doing this the right way would probably give even better results.

Something based on absinthe or pastis would be period-appropriate.

Pocket cakes? Mini- or micro-cake already seems used to mean conventional types of cakes made in miniature tins.

I'm wondering how swapping egg whites for an equal amount of some of the yolks would work out, since the white is the part of the egg that provide structure (Maybe just omitting some of the yolk? Too much white might make the cake tough).

And if you do make chestnut flour, chestnut flour pasta (especially pappardelle and gnocchi) is great with game.

I'd never heard of brining pineapple, either, and have never found fresh raw pineapple irritating; possibly in Eastern countries it's eaten less ripe, so it's more puckery?

If nothing else seems to do the trick, you might need to add something like a little powdered gelatin or konjak.